What Is Dental Sedation?

Most people do not look forward to dental appointments. It's not pleasant to have someone poking around in your mouth and perhaps even drilling your teeth. The majority of people can make it through, but some are too afraid to see a dentist unless they are in insufferable pain. Dental sedation can help them get the oral care they may desperately need.

Definition

• Allison DiMatteo of the Consumer Guide to Dentistry explains dental sedation means using medication to relax patients before working on their teeth. Most dentists just use local anesthetic injected into the work area. Dental sedation means administering a general anesthetic that affects the patient's mental state to make them more amendable to treatment.

Purpose

• Dental sedation lets fearful people or those with sensitive gag reflexes get their teeth fixed comfortably. Some people neglect their teeth because they are afraid of pain or simply hate doing to the dentist. Sedation relaxes them during the treatment and clouds their memory afterward. Patients usually have to pay for sedation out of pocket, even if they have dental insurance, because it is not considered medically necessary, DiMatteo advises.

Types

• Originally, the two most popular dental sedation methods were an inhalant called nitrous oxide or intravenous administration of drugs. DiMatteo states most dentists now use oral sedation. They give the patient benzodiazepine pills to take prior to the appointment, Dental Fear Central explains. This does not put the patient to sleep, but induces a highly relaxed state. The patient often has little or no memory of the treatment. He must have a driver to transport him home and someone to monitor him for up to four hours because it takes time for the medication to wear off completely.

Use

• Dental sedation is most commonly used for patients who have delayed oral care for a long time. They may have multiple problems, and medication allows the dentist to do a lot of work all at once. Sedation also allows fearful people to get back onto a regular schedule of dental care. They can maintain the progress once their long-term issues have been corrected.

Risks

• Dental sedation is generally safe but it does carry some risks. Patients can have an adverse reaction to the medication, and the Association of Pediatric Dentistry states there is a mortality rate of one in 250,000 people. The Sedation Dentistry InfoCenter advises choosing a dentist with specific training in sedation techniques. Ask the dentist how she screens patients and what sort of emergency procedures are in place in her office.

Warning

• Dental Fear Central warns sedation is not a good choice for everyone. The drugs may not be effective if your fear makes you too resistant to the idea of dental treatment. It may also fail if you have a very controlling personality as you might not be able to surrender to the relaxation. Therapy and behavior modification may be a better choice in those circumstances because it attacks the core of the problem rather than suppressing it artificially.